I never said that he was a good coach. I don't know one way or the other. But, I'm not holding anything against anyone for what they did at Oakland, especially for someone with so little experience at the time. Going by his first year as the Saints HC, he had a very good draft. Allen deserves some credit for that. But, was that just a blind squirrel finding a nut, or is Allen + Ireland pretty good at getting talent? There's not a big enough sample set to know that. We at least know that DA is better at drafting QBs than Payton. :D
I think his coaching hires were pretty good last year and this year. I'm not sure keeping Pete was a good decision. But, Pete has success before so I don't know if it was a bad decision, either.
I didn't like how he handled the QB situation. But, if the players would have had an issue with how he handled that, we'd know by now from Underhill or MT. So, I'm guessing there's more to the story than has been leaked to the public.
So, there are some things to be encouraged about, and some things to be discouraged about. We each choose which we want to focus on.
I might be in the minority, but I'm looking forward to the draft and next season. Maybe next season sucks, but I'm not go into next season with the idea that next season is going to suck no matter what because DA is the HC, until it does.
If you can't find reasons to be positive as a fan in the offseason before any games have been won or lost, it kinda sucks being a fan.